All My Regrets
by 3cheersforidiots
Summary: Aka the one-shots no one asked for. I didn't ask for them either, I just... I just wrote them because I had the prompts. Oh, well. Enjoy. Current: Power and Kinship - In which Luna-unconsciously, though-but teacjes Umbridge an important life lesson. (Why am I the one who always gets these prompts? D:)
1. Chapter 1: Owl

**A/N: There are certain things I'm not gonna forgive myself for doing. Everything here is one of those things.**

 **Hopscotch** : "Why are you shaking?" (dialogue), owl (creature), Black Lake (location)

 **The Ultimate Hermione Pairing Club:** Hermione/Errol

 _ **Gringotts:**_

 **Pairings:** Hermione/Errol

 **Verbs** : pick, land, held, stumble, know, drop, stroll

 **Nouns:** snow, ice, envelope, creature

* * *

"Oh, the poor thing." Hermine picked up the slightly tousled-looking owl from where it landed, right on the ice of the frozen Black Lake, where the witch was sitting over her Potions essay. The creature held an envelope in his beak, though the name of the addressee was slightly smeared, since Errol dropped it in the snow when he stumbled upon his arrival. Though, Hermione could still somehow apprehend the writing. It was for her, though she didn't know what could have been so important that it couldn't have waited until tomorrow. "Why are you shaking?"

True enough, the bird seemed like he was having a miniature seizure of some sorts at the moment, which might have been because the weather was still a bit too cold for an old owl like him, and the fact that he's been on duty for decades now didn't help a bit.

So, Hermione quickly dropped the letter in her bag along with the essay – which she noted she would have to finish revising later on -, and held the creature in both of her arms while she strolled towards the Main Entrance.

"How about we got you back to the Owlery? There, you can have a bit of rest before going back to the Burrow, okay?" she said to Errol, who simply cooed in response.


	2. Chapter 2: Don't Bite

**The Ultimate Hermione Pairing Club:** Hermione/Sanguini

 **Ultimate Battle Challenge:** 300 words. someone gets bitten

 **The If You Dare Challenge** : 62 (fourth)

 **Chocolate Frog Card Club** : (Bronze) Merton Graves – Incorporate a party into your story.

 **The Restricted Section:** No spells can be cast/mentioned.

 _ **Gringotts:**_

 **Pairings:** Hermione/Sanguini

 **Nouns** : blood, vampire, man, evening, corridor, wall, mistake

 **Verbs:** escort, comprehend, stare, hate

* * *

She should have known better than to let the vampire escort her out. She should have just stayed with Harry – hell, she shouldn't have left Cormac, even though she hated the guts of that git -, and maybe, just maybe she wouldn't have ended up here, her eyes staring at the ceiling, blood slowly oozing from the bite marks on her neck.

She didn't really know what came over her, because usually, she would have been the logical one, she would have been the one who stopped others from doing reckless things, but not today. She just thought she could get along with the man well, since Luna managed to do so as well.

Well, she must have been wrong, though she wasn't sure where she messed it up. It seemed like, he didn't mind her company, although, he did look rather bored all evening.

No one noticed when the two of them slipped out of the party. Slughorn was too drunk to comprehend what was going on, and no one else cared where she was anyway. Everybody had their own problems.

She should have been at least suspicious when he asked her to take a walk with her on the empty corridors. She shouldn't have left her wand in her dormitory that night. She shouldn't have been such an idiot.

Not that it mattered anymore. She was sitting there, in the girl's bathroom on the fourth floor corridor, back to the wall, bleeding heavily, and she had next to no hope that anyone would notice.

Would she become a vampire now? Or would she simply die? Would they even find her body later on? Or would she just lie here, forgotten for eternity? No, the latter was pretty unlikely, eventually someone would come in here.

On that night, Hermione learned that only one decision can make or break your life, and that it only took one mistake to end it all. What a shame she realized that when it was already too late.


	3. Chapter 3: A Fool's Luck

**A/N: Okay, so I had no idea what to do with the Western genre as I've seen/read literally nothing of the sort, so I just did an absolutely cliché, a bit crack-ish, dialogue-wise probably terribly-written something. Help me :'D**

 **Hopscotch** : (genre) Western

 **Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry** : Arithmancy Assignment #4 – Write about somebody who's really lucky.

 **The If You Dare Challenge** : 371 (The Mississippi River)

 _ **Gringotts:**_

 **Compound Words** : index finger, afternoon, trademark, sunset, buckskin, everyone, sunshine, townspeople, into, indeed

 **Expressions** : howdy

 **Verbs:** win, gallop, end, drink, share, stand, hand, toss, bother, wonder, grumble, hop, duel, settle, appoint, mumble, grew, raise, depend, whistle

 **Adjectives** : lucky, great, main, traditional, bored, fast, my, fair, same, satisfied, suspicious, distressed

 **Nouns** : luck, Mississippi River, New Orleans, blood, respect, sheriff, village, land, horse, townspeople, story, barrel, buckskin, tension, tune, street, pistol, gun

* * *

There was once a man, his name was Sirius Black. Otherwise, he was also known as "The Walking Luck" from Minneapolis to New Orleans, since probably, he would always be remembered as the luckiest man The Mississippi River had ever seen.

People often thought that winning was simply in his blood. Whenever he had turned up in a village, people either greeted him with great respect, or, if not, then he would face off against the sheriff of said village. In the end, of course, he would always get the prettiest girl of the land, and would gallop away with her on his sorrel horse.

And it didn't happen otherwise, when he once ended up in a quarrel in the city of Memphis either.

It was late in the afternoon when Sirius set his foot in the little tavern on the main road of the town, and he wasn't surprised to find a few other people there, who were drinking, while sharing stories with each other rather animatedly. What – or rather, who – had caught his eyes though was the girl standing behind the bar, her blond locks falling in her face while she handed out a few drinks.

Sirius didn't think twice, instead, he quickly strolled towards the bartender, and when he reached her, he simply plopped down onto one of the barstools and tossed his Stetson hat on the table. He quickly put on his trademark smirk, with which he faced the girl in front of him.

"Howdy, the name's Sirius Black. It's a pleasure to meet you, m'lady," he said as the girl turned to face him with a rather bored expression.

"Marlene McKinnon. What can I get you?" she gestured with her head towards the man. "Say it fast, I have better things to do."

"I like you, Marlene," Sirius exclaimed. "There aren't many girls like you out there. Most of them falls for my charms the minute they see me, and it's getting boring. You interested in going on a ride?"

"Not really," Marlene retorted. "But if you don't want to get a drink, then I'm not bothering with you anymore."

"Fine, I'll have a whiskey shot, then," Sirius sighed. "So, how about I offer you a ride in the sunset in return?"

"Nope," Marlene shot back while handing the man a bottle of alcohol. "And my man is sitting right there, in case you were wondering," she pointed her index finger towards the far end of the tavern, where a man in buckskins were sipping his whiskey. Though, the buckskins weren't what made him different from everybody else in the pub, since almost everyone wore them around there. No, rather, it was the star pinned to his leather vest.

"Of course it would be the sheriff," Sirius grumbled under his breath, while rolling his eyes. "It's always the sheriff. Well, I guess I'll be having another face-off today."

He then hopped off the barstool he had sat on, and swiftly approached the man at the far end of the bar.

"Oi, you want to duel?" Sirius asked from him. The man looked up from his glass of alcohol, eyeing Sirius rather sceptically before answering.

"Why would I?" he replied with a raised eyebrow. "You haven't done anything out of law."

"Yes, well, it's because I want your girl to be mine," Sirius explained. "And it would be only fair if we settled it the traditional way."

"I don't think you've thought this through, as I hadn't lost one duel ever since I was appointed sheriff, but do as your heart desires," the man shrugged. "Meet you outside when the sun sets, pardner."

"I take it you haven't heard of me yet," Sirius mumbled to himself as he left the tavern with his trademark smirk on his face.

* * *

The last rays of the sunshine were lighting up the streets of Memphis with their orange-reddish beams of light. On the main road stood two men, each of them holding a gun in their rights, with the barrel facing the ground. A few townspeople were scattered around the place, most of them watching the scene as the tension between the sheriff and the wanderer grew immensely.

Sirius wore his notorious grin, while the sheriff was staring at him rather blankly, and both of them stood there for a few moments, before simultaneously raising their pistols and pulling the trigger at the same time.

If both of them would've had fallen, people wouldn't have been surprised. Except, that never happened. Instead, much to the crowd's dismay, the next moment, the sheriff laid in the dirt, while Sirius was looking around with a satisfied expression. He saw the shocked gazes of the townspeople, and the suspicious eyes of the bartender girl he had met just a few hours ago.

As he suspected, nobody saw him snapping his fingers right after he fired his gun. Of course, no one knew about his secret either. Though, he was rather fine with it. His luck practically depended on it, and it would have been foolish to tell anyone about it.

And so, he made his way towards the girl named Marlene while whistling a tune he heard not a long time ago, in a nearby city.

"So, what do you think about riding into the sunset now?" he inquired with an amused expression.

Marlene let out a distressed sigh before answering.

"Well, you just defeated my man, so I shouldn't say yes," she started. "But fine. Consider it to be your reward."

"Oh, the pleasure is indeed mine," Sirius nodded knowingly. "You see that sorrel horse right there?" he pointed at the animal on the other side of the road. "His name is Thunder. Let's go," and with that, he grabbed Marlene's arm.

A few minutes later, as Marlene was sitting behind the man on the horse, she let out the question that's been bothering her ever since the end of the battle.

"Sirius, tell me something. How come you'd won, even though both of you fired at the same time?"

The man in front of her contemplated for a moment before he truthfully answered.

"Well, people seem to think that only women can be witches. It does give me some kind of advantage. But this is a secret, so you better keep it," he said. Before Marlene could cut in, however, he quickly continued. "Though, let's just say that I'm indeed a lucky man."

And this is the story of how Sirius got the girl. Again.


	4. Chapter 4: Batch of Flowers

**A/N: Well, my prompts didn't give me much of a chance :'D And I also kind of had no idea what to do with it, so this is just crap I managed to scrape together somehow. Enjoy.**

 **Word count: 269**

 **Hopscotch** : Hermione/Peter Pettigrew (pairing). Romance (genre), daffodils (object), demanding (word), dressing gown (object)

* * *

Every day, at the morning, she would wake up and find a batch of flowers next to her bed, placed carefully in the nightstand. The flowers varied from day to day, sometimes they would be magnolias, other times they would be daffodils, and some days, they would be violets. She didn't know who they were from, because on the slip of paper that was always next to the flowers, she would only get a couple of words scribbled down.

 _Only for you, dear._

And there would be a single P letter as a signature. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't find anyone, whose name started with P and could have been the sender. And so, on those mornings, after she had taken a shower, she would walk over to the table in her dressing gown, take the roses and put them into a vase, and then she would go on with her life like nothing had happened. She thought that if she was so important for them, then they would come out to her eventually.

Although, sometimes, her friends would make a few comments about how the number of flowers seemed to increase in her flat. Ginny, for one, would come to her demanding her to tell where, or whom, she had gotten them from. But she could never tell, because she didn't know either.

Maybe it was foolish, but she didn't want to know. She liked the way things were, even though she knew there would always be a nagging uncertainty in the back of her head. But it was all for the better, she decided.


	5. Chapter 5: Constant Vigilance

**A/N: So, I wrote this at 3.12 AM, half-asleep, in less than 10 minutes. With these prompts. I should get an award or something *falls asleep on her desk***

 **Word count: 215**

 **Hopscotch** : dressing gown (object), dog barking (action), curtain (word), Alastor Moody (character), support (word)

* * *

"What was that?" the Auror whipped his head around in a swift motion, then when he noted that nothing was lurking behind him in order to cast an Unforgivable on him, he turned back and shook his head defiantly. "Kids these days," he grunted.

"That was just a dog barking at you," a much too happy-looking Nymphadora Tonks commented. "I'd bark at you if I was a dog too; I mean, who would bring a dressing gown to a completely ordinary mission?"

"Constant vigilance," he exclaimed. "You never know what you may need while you're chasing down all kinds of dark wizards."

"What's even worse," she continued like she didn't even hear his last few words. "It doesn't even look like a dressing gown; it looks like a bloody curtain. As far as I know, you could get curtains from anywhere in this area; there are lots of houses around here."

"You never know when you may need it," he repeated. "Constant vigilance, Tonks."

"I'm starting to see why they said you needed my support with this mission; I'd hate to leave it in an old, senile man's hands," she grinned. "And you're still the best in the Department. I never understood how," she shook her head with slight disbelief. "But constant vigilance, it is."


	6. Chapter 6: Power and Kinship

**A/N: Words cannot tell how much I hate Umbridge -.- I also hate this work, because I had to make amends with my Umbridge characterization. Blegh. Enjoy, though.**

 **Word count: 283**

 **The Mysterious Competition** : Round 1 - Mysterious Sophie, you will be writing about Luna Lovegood and Dolores Umbridge. One character will teach the other how to do something, and you must somehow incorporate the word 'collocate' into your story.

* * *

Another scratch of blood red ink on the parchment - another scar that will never fade. The physical wounds, they may heal, however, the pain will still somewhat remain in her soul, she knows.

"That should help you learn how to pay attention while in class, I hope," the woman in pink behind the desk said after scrutinizing the younger girl's hand, longer than it was probably necessary. "It should also help you with collocating your priorities, Miss Lovegood."

"I hope you learn something from teaching here as well, Professor," the Ravenclaw girl replied with a tiny, fragile voice.

"Don't be silly." The toad-woman dismissed her. "I have been trained in the Ministry to be a professional; I don't see what could I learn here."

"Companionship?" Luna said.

"Listen here, dear," the woman replied. "As long as you have power, you don't need companionship. You do not need any form of kinship to be happy when you can rule. If you abide by the rules, it will lead you to power. Now, you may be excused for tonight, do not forget your detention tomorrow."

Luna hung her head, inwardly wincing as a stabbing pain shot through her left hand.

"I won't," she said. "Good night, Professor."

~oOo~

Body coursing through the wild forest, shrouded under the dark night sky, this conversation shot through Dolores's mind, temporarily ceasing the fear and disgust that otherwise dominated her thoughts.

She scoffed at the thought of accepting a young girl's advice - the woman hated kids, and she hated having to listen to anybody else's thought even more. Nevertheless, somewhere, in the back of her mind, something clicked.

Maybe she should create a companionship with her captors.


End file.
